I do believe that human nature is a fact. I also believe that many people abuse the term for various arguements that really doesn't have anything to do with human nature, other than the fact we're hurd animals. Often people talk of human nature when they really mean common taught behaviour. Which still has a bases in human nature when you rationalize that we are all that we are because of our human nature, thus all that we are is our human nature..

Then again, if you think like this, what's the point in defining human nature. Just call it 'human'.

Point of the story is that human nature is much like MBTI a man made concept. A category in which all humans fit, but no other life forms.

Is there any theory at all that says there is no such thing as human nature? Darwinism, All religious believe systems, Existentialism (in all its forms). Nobody ever says that we are a random collection of individuals that just happen to be a lot alike (which in itself would imply some sort of human nature.)

Well there is absolutely a shared biological/instinctual nature for humans to eat and make babies. There's probably an argument that says those things are the cause of everything we've ever done/will do as individuals and as a species but I'm not really interested in finding it or taking the time to come up with my own. :p

This is what I think of immediately when you say "Human Nature". As you can tell there's a heavy emphasis on the "nature" part. But equally invasive of my thoughts is the idea of a vague shared kind of ethos/responsibility/base "morality" that transcends societal/political boundaries. Now, as I said, it's arguable that if such thing exists it can be explained by natural selection.

As to whether or not I myself believe in a common human ethos or that we are purely instinctual or even some combination I couldn't say. These are just ideas that immediately came to me when you mentioned the phrase. Well, I guess I might be leaning towards the biological standpoint as that is the only thing every human has in common no matter what.

But whether one believes our nature is a product of evolution, delegated by something "higher", or a result of something else entirely I don't suppose it really matters. It's the same result no matter what. The present.

The statement that there is no human nature is tantamount to the statement that there are no humans. Accordingly the term human nature is identical in meaning to nature of a human. One way to ask what something is, or how something is defined is to ask what its nature is. Thus, the term human nature denotes the following with respect to items that are human: if something is human, then its nature is such. Thus, human nature can be defined as a list of qualities that all humans necessarily have.

You can use my method to discover what the other attributes of human nature are. However, I do believe that I proved that some attributes of human nature exist and eo ipso, there is such a thing as human nature.

I've written this paper over a year ago. May have some interesting insights for you.

Tendentially, Human Nature is everything humans are, thus humans are exclusively human nature, thus if we believe there is no such a thing as human nature, we believe in the non-existence of humanity. Everything we do, every way in which we respond to the outside world is primarly the result of our nature as humans.

Tendentially, Human Nature is everything humans are, thus humans are exclusively human nature, thus if we believe there is no such a thing as human nature, we believe in the non-existence of humanity. Everything we do, every way in which we respond to the outside world is primarly the result of our nature as humans.

Human nature is not everything that humans are. Some qualities that certain humans have are not natural and have been artificially developed. For example, a human who has a fondness for metals or for sky-diving is not following an innate instinct. If we say that his actions are part of human nature, it follows that those who do not have this quality, for example infants or people of different hobbies are less human than he is. In other words, their nature lacks the component of 'human-ness' that he has.

In my previous post, I suggested that we could avoid this problem by defining human nature as a set of qualities that all humans perforce have.

"Do not argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." -- Mark Twain